Chương 99: Queen's Wrath - The Queen Has Returned - Part 2
It still was dark when Hercules woke up in the room he shared with Malana, Kalta and Idna.
The air was cool and pleasant, but not for the young man. That cold air reminded him of when the Nova Odeon had burned while he slept after being beat-up by the demon lords, without having saved a single person.
Still lying on his bed, Hercules squinted, adjusting to the dawn's darkness, and let out a long, heavy sigh.
Since he had talked to Athena about Mammon's death, his mind had been lighter and cleaner, but for some unknown reason, he felt rather sentimental lying in that room.
Rolling over in bed, laying on his stomach to try to go back to sleep, but the screams in his mind echoed, pleading for mercy and revenge, even though he has never heard such screams.
The young man rolled over a dozen more times and, unable to sleep, he flung himself out of bed, grabbed his new sword, and silently left the room.
The palace was deserted at that hour. Hercules looked everywhere, looking for the guards, but not a living soul was present. He thought maybe it was a shift change or something like that and continued his way down the bleak, cold, lonely hallway.
When he finally reached his destination, Hercules unsheathed his white-bladed sword like polished bones and took a deep breath, concentrating.
Hercules descended from a family of famous swordsmen in the previous world, but he only came to learn the art of swordsmanship in this world and had no knowledge of rituals or anything else that one should do before a training, he just repeated what his master taught him.
The young man held the sword with the blade in front of his eyes, inhaled and exhaled slowly with his eyes closed until he reached the minimum concentration in his turbulent mind.
Hercules stood there, on that lawn in the garden, with only the sound of the water fountain, and the breeze that blew through the walls and columns of the palace, making the soothing harmony in the background. Then, still with his eyes closed, he saw his enemies advancing with fierce fangs and sharp claws at him.
The infernal creatures of various shapes and sizes had hungry, sinister eyes, and they all drooled as they stumbled over a piece of the young man who moved, dodging, stabbing, pirouetting, and impaling his imaginary enemies.
Lunnia, who had been there the longest and had not been noticed by the young man, looked at those movements and silently let a long, disappointed sigh escape her lips.
This was one of the many nights the woman spent awake, as due to her demonic blood, she was rarely sleepy. She were there in silence, alone.
Those nights that once displeased and depressed her, now made her look forward to the next dawn. Because now, every day was noisy and didn't always smell of blood and death.
Anyway, in silence, Lunnia continued to watch Hercules move to and fro, losing his breath or tripping over his own feet, and wondered how the young man was still alive.
Not being able to see it for another second, the woman rose from the stone bench where she was sitting.
"You make too many useless moves that could cost you your life."
"Huh?!!" Hercules jumped away from where the voice came and opened his black eyes wide with fright. "H-how? S-since when?"
Lunnia had worn her transformation ring since meeting in the world below and hadn't taken it off since.
Her current appearance was that of a young and not-so-pretty, but charming freckled redhead with big, round, blue eyes. She wore dark gray leather pants and a frilly red blouse that accentuated her breasts.
Lunnia raised an eyebrow significantly at the swordman's lack of awareness and let her shoulders slump in yet another disappointment.
"How did you manage to survive for so long?"
"Huh?" Hercules blinked his eyes a few times, like if computing the question in his mind, and his expression of surprise changed to clarity, and he shrugged. "I always fought like this and I always won-"
Lunnia cocked her head to the side and nodded, understanding that pause. "That's what I thought..."
Hercules looked away.
"Try it that way..."
***
In the morning, Ella sat at the table where sat a beautiful woman with long black hair who stood out from the various drunks, harlots and travelers in a charming and bustling tavern, as no one else there had wings, and if they did, it wouldn't be like hers, of so pure white that almost glowed.
"Did you really think no one would notice you?"
"!!"
"No need to rush to answer. Chew, I can wait."
The winged woman chewed on her food, savoring something that might have been grape pie, Ella couldn't tell. The smell of the place made the dragon's keen scent confused and the plate in front of the red-eyed woman was empty and clean as if it had never been used.
As soon as Lucifer landed on Basilian, an illegal entry by the way, she was amazed. Since the gates of hell opened, she had never even set foot in human cities. Lucifer wanted to live a quiet life, without the attention of Jehovah, her father, or the rancor of her mother, Asherah, for having remained by her father's side.
So, followed by demonic hordes, Lucifer flew to the far north as soon as she passed through the gates, and there she erected an immense castle of stone and ice where she remained for four thousand years.
However, the news of Mammon's death and the arrival of her younger brother, Michael, made Lucifer uneasy. The death of the demon lord of greed was hilarious news for the bored Lucifer, but Michael's arrival was something that made her apprehensive, as Michael could only want one thing, to control her.
Lucifer needed strong allies to confront the one who locked her in a cage at the bottom of hell after plotting with her older brother, Raphael, to make her father feel threatened by her presence.
Lucifer wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and lazily emptied her mug with a frothy blue drink that Ella had no idea what it was.
"I wasn't hiding." said Lucifer. "I came for Faena."
"...Faena died." Ella lied after a brief silence.
This was purely to see the reaction of such a powerful being to the bad news.
Ella's hobby once again prevailed over her morals. For her, there was nothing more interesting than watching and experiencing powerful beings.
Before the gods were banished, she hardly ever slept, the world was too much fun for her to sleep.
Ella still remembered the time when she had made bets with Ertala, goddess of war, and the two of them had caused wars and eagerly awaited the results. Then Ella complained that Ertala cheated by blessing warriors of her "team", and the battle between goddess and dragon went on for centuries until they made another bet.
Lucifer rolled her eyes up and down thoughtfully and shrugged. "Then I want to talk to the person who has a strength..." Lucifer narrowed her eyes briefly. "This person is a little more powerful than you... Is it another dragon?"
"..." Ella had no answer. (That's a good question... After all, what is Athena?) Ella thought for a long time without coming to any conclusions. Athena was a mystery to her, even though she already knew so much about her past, and that was what made Athena so interesting to her. "She says she's a high-human."
"Hm..." Lucifer looked at the people around. "Didn't they go extinct around 400 years ago?"
"I do not know." Ella motioned for the waitress. "I was sleeping that day."
***
While waiting to talk to Athena, before even entering the room, Anemus was in the palace gardens where Lunnia was using a white scabbard to beat Hercules when he missed a move.
Anemus was so deeply thoughtful, that not even Hercules' moans of pain didn't bothered her. She was thinking about Hades, her old, manic and only master.
A powerful and dangerous dark mage with a strong desire for mass murder, and wicked man to everyone but her.
At some point, as she faced a vulture or maybe an eagle soaring in the sunny sky, she began to think about Athena too. Even though she had already accepted the fact that they were the same person, she still compared them and tried to highlight the similarities and differences between the two.
Anemus sighed and shook her head slowly as she shook off the haunting thoughts that surfaced as she compared them.
"It's useless to compare them even if they're not the same person. Hades is dead..." Anemus blew the words into the wind and rose from her seat in the garden. "She must have already returned to her room..."
She fluttered her wings, ruffling her feathers, then stretched her wings spreading them wide as she did the same with her arms, and left the noisy garden behind as she headed for the interior of the palace.
***
"Wait, don't come in yet." Said Mifa from inside the room.
Anemus knew that Athena and Mifa had slept together the night before and didn't mind hearing Athena's lover's voice coming from inside that room, or tried not to bother, feel jealous or ashamed in front of the guards there.
After a while the door opened and Anemus frowned upon seeing the garment Mifa was wearing.
(Is she trying to tease me?) The nymph thought, sticking up her upturned nose and entering the room. "But what is this mess?"
The room had books and scrolls scattered everywhere, even on the bed. Anemus rested her eyes on some titles and soon realized that the vast majority there were about magical phenomena, magical theories and ancient spells.
"These are books I took from the library as I tried to locate Athena or bring her back." Mifa explained while tying her hair in a knot.
"Bring her back?"
"Yes, apparently she had ceased to exist because of a very powerful magic..." Mifa pressed her lips together, staring at the books and remembering the days of research into the night. "I've never been able to find anything that could really help bring her back, but…" She sighed in relief and smiled slightly. It was a really happy smile.
The two were silent for a moment, then Anemus insisted on calling servants to take the books back to the library and tidy the room.
Long minutes passed before Athena arrived, and during that time, the pair were pricking each other while maintaining a false cordiality in conversations interspersed with long, uncomfortable silences.
After a while, Athena finally arrived and the long-awaited conversation, relationship discussion or love dispute began. In the beginning there was nothing wrong, they talked civilly, without petty teasing or anything else that could lead to a more intense discussion, but not for long.
Anemus was starting to talk about the time she spent with Athena and that she loved her for much longer, as well as having more right to be by Athena's side than Mifa, who did not deny any of the nymph's claims. Instead of arguing, Mifa calmly claimed her position as girlfriend and that her love for Athena would not lose in anything to what Anemus felt.
As for Athena, every time she tried to calm things down, Mifa and Anemus told her to be quiet while the two still hadn't finished making all their arguments clear.
After so much talking and making clear all the feelings they had for each other, Anemus, Mifa and Athena sighed heavily.
Anemus looked at Mifa who remained calm all the time and wanted to have those iron nerves. But she didn't know, Mifa was trying not to yell at the nymph to stop being so selfish and nasty.
Mifa wanted so much to slap that pretty pink face, so that way Anemus would stop thinking only about what she wanted and look at the entire painting. But instead of slapping, Mifa made objective observations about what Anemus wanted and what her real options were.
"You have four paths to go, considering I'm not going to break up with Athena." Mifa said with an expression so serious it was almost threatening. "One: You can accept things as they are and also be Athena's girlfriend." Mifa looked at Athena who was swinging her leg frantically under the table. "Two: You can give her up and just be a friend. I'd rather like that." Mifa smiled at Anemus soon gained bitter looks on her face. "Three: You can give her up and go away. But I don't think that's something you two want." Athena shook her head denying the idea. "And four: You can wait."
"Wait?" Anemus asked not understanding what she meant by that and thought until her expression twitched. "Do you have any idea how long this would take?"
"No, but does it matter?" Mifa smiled.
Nymphs weren't immortal, but they live as long as elves. Mifa hoped that Anemus would be there for Athena when she had gone. Even without knowing how long a fenrir would live, Mifa deduced that it would only be for a few hundred years and was relieved to know that there would be someone Athena could lean on at that moment.
Mifa's words stayed in Anemus' mind. The nymph drummed her fingers on the tabletop and another thoughtful sigh escaped as she stared into Athena's emerald eyes. She had four options, which Mifa cited with painful frankness for both Anemus and Athena.
(Accepting this kind of relationship would be proof of love...) Anemus thought.
"What will your decision be?" Athena asked biting the inside of her lip in anxiety.
"I have two conditions."
"What?"
"First of all, I want you to me-..." Anemus looked at Mifa. "Promise us you won't have anyone else."
"I just want you two." Athena responded immediately. "Just you two."
"Promise?" Mifa asked with an encouraging smile.
"Promise." Athena said looking at Mifa and then looked at Anemus. "I promise I just want you two."
Anemus sighed and Mifa's smile widened to a satisfied smile.
"The second promise I want from you..." Anemus thought more about what she wanted to say and at the last moment, she changed what she wanted. "Promise me that you will love us equally and that everything you do with one will do with the other."
At that moment, Mifa, who was sipping a little of her tea, choked and held back a laugh. That proposal was open to so many things and she realized that Anemus might come to regret it, but she said nothing.
"I promise." Athena said and hid a laugh in a smile. "I promise that whatever I do to Mifa, I will do to you and vice versa."
"Excellent." Anemus said, raising an eyebrow at those reactions and with a red face, she continued. "Then I want a kiss."
"I want more than that." Athena said.
"I'm going to go get some exercise, enjoy the rest of the morning." Mifa said as she got up from her seat and started to pick up her clothes.
"Huh?"
Athena leaned across the table and pulled Anemus in for a kiss.
Minutes later, after Mifa left the room, Anemus understood how all-encompassing the last promise, which she herself had envisioned, was.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
All_J
All_J One more chapter and the arc ends, the volume ends, and I'm going to take a short break for three or four days.
The signal reception at the farm where I'm going is terrible and the internet there must be pulled by a centenary turtle because it's so slow.
Vote, add to your library and comment if you like it.
Please let me know if you find some error.
See ya!
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